News
U.S. journalists detained in North Korea
Two U.S. journalists working on North Korean border with China near the Yalu river, on the western border, have been detained by North Korean military officials. The South Korean television station YTN quoted government officials as saying the two journalists were warned to stop filiming by North Korean guards. When these warnings were ignored, the […]
Taliban threaten to kill Beverly Geisbrecht
According to reports coming out of Pakistan the Taliban have threatened to kill Beverly Geisbrecht, the Canadian freelance journalist kidnapped in November 2008, if ransom demands are not met by March 30. Earlier this month a ransom demand of $375,000 was reportedly made. In a video taped message sent to the Miranshah Press Club earlier […]
Fixing the foreign correspondent web
How does the Internet affect the work of a foreign correspondent? That’s the question Andrew Stroehlein, a journalist and Communications Director for the International Crisis Group, discusses on the Reuters AlertNet blog. Andrew draws together a lot of current thinking and makes the point that it’s often impractical for a foreign correspondent to work effectively […]
What makes a good reporter?
– I mean, a reporter working in a traumatic situation? Are there psychological predispositions or skills to be developed – that would make a journalist more effective in working with traumas? This topic I started discussing with my students at the Moscow State University. And my smart kids gave me some interesting answers. They said you […]
Gael Garcia Bernal to be recognized for contributions to film
Gael Garcia Bernal, one of Mexico’s most bankable film stars and a favorite in Hollywood, is to be honored at the upcoming International Film Festival in Guadalajara for his contributions to cinema.
Frontline presents screenings of Burma VJ with Human Rights Watch Film Festival
We’re really pleased to be co-hosting 3 screenings of the documentary Burma VJ: Reporting from a Closed Country at this year’s London Human Rights Watch Film Festival, which I’d urge you to check out. We also have a number of prints currently in our forum to promote the festival, which is one of the highlights […]
Leaving Khartoum
This trip was a bit of a punt. We knew the ICC decision was coming, but no-one knew when. George Clooney and Nick Kristof took a gamble and were a week or so too early. Others in Nairobi left it too late and couldn’t get a visa in time. My advantage was that I came […]
Former president to run for Yerevan Mayor
Following the recent announcement that the next rally to be staged by the extra-parliamentary opposition will be held just weeks before a crucial municipal election to decide the capital’s mayor, it perhaps comes as no surprise that the Armenian National Congress (ANC) will contest the vote. However, news that its leader, former President Levon Ter-Petrossian, […]
Osservatorio Caucaso: The Armenian Dram collapses
Following on from a previous Frontline Club post on the recent collapse of the Armenian dram, my article on the same is now available on Osservatorio Caucaso. There will be more articles on various topics, including on the controversial subject of gender, coming over the next few weeks and months, but for now, this first article […]
The BBC “failed” Kate Peyton
Kate Peyton was gunned down outside the Sahafi hotel in Mogadishu in November, 2005. An inquest into her death was held in November, 2008. Charles Peyton, the brother of Kate, has asked us to publish this from him. The views contained below do not represent those of the Frontline Club, The BBC failed my sister, […]
Vatican criticizes excommunication
Finally the Vatican took a sensible stance on the case of the 9-year-old girl who had an abortion done in Recife, Brazil, in the beginning of March. It’s not an official statement – but then again, I suppose it’s the closest they’ll get to an offcial statement on such a polemic issue. Archbishop Rino Fisichellam, […]
Evo Morales and the coca leaf
Last week the president of Bolivia Evo Morales chewed coca leaves at the UN drug summit in Vienna. “This is chewing”, he said defiantly. “It doesn’t hurt anyone. Ingesting it does not make me a drug addict. If it were so, Mr. Costa (the top U.N. counter-narcotics official) would have to arrest me". His attitude […]
Doctors Without Boundaries
So you’re a paediatrician who volunteers for MSF. You go to Darfur and … Beyond his work as a healer, Erlich was able to help document the genocide by providing children in the camps with paper and crayons they used to make drawings and smuggling them out of the camps. Over 150 of these children’s […]
Anyone for Poland?
Club regular Charles Glass emails to tell us about a Kania Lodge in Poland run by war correspondent John Borrell. John’s happy to give club members a discount if you fancy a stay. Sounds like a fantastic place for a good break or a bit of book writing according to Charles. "Kania Lodge near the […]
Apologies
I must apologize to Frontline Club website readers due to my extended absence. During the past week, I’ve suffered from LRE (lesion for repetitive effort) due to my frenenic typewriting. In the meantime, an entire medical crew was excommunicated by the Brazilian catholic church for conducting a legal abortion on a 9-year-old girl who had […]
$375,000 ransom demand for Beverly Giesbrecht
The Globe & Mail reports that a ransom demand of $375,000 has been made by the Taliban kidnappers of Beverly Giesbrecht who has been held hostage since November 2008. The paper says the demand came during an interview with a man calling himself Qari on the Pakistan-Afghanistan border who said only money would secure her […]
Student anti-corruption protest raises eyebrows
Conversation in Yerevan was ablaze this week with talk of an anti-corruption protest that bore all the hall-marks of a coloured revolutionary youth movement at work. On the walls and other structures close to many universities and colleges, the names and photographs of lecturers or other administrative staff alleged to be on the take were posted […]
Escalation is Never the Best Policy
Back into another wait and see phase here in Khartoum. We had the ICC, followed by the expulsions of 13 international NGOs and action against three local agencies. President Bashir made speech after speech, and was rarely off the TV. Things were building day by day. More expulsions expected. Then nothing. A planned trip to […]
Stealth Fighters to Darfur?
U.N. officials and aid workers are gathering in eastern Chad to discuss preparations for an alarming contingency. With the recent arrest warrant for Sudanese President Omar Bashir and his subsequent ejection of foreign aid groups from Darfur, the U.N. and Chad’s humanitarian community are worried that thousands of Darfuri refugees currently living in camps in […]
U.S. Army’s “Sim Refugee”
U.N. officials are scrambling to prepare for the prospect of tens of thousands of refugees pouring into eastern Chad from Darfur to escape escalating tensions in Sudan. An mass movement of displaced peoples will pose major challenges to the European Union peacekeeping force in Chad and Chadian government troops, considering that combatants in the Darfur […]
Photojournalism show explains 2008 in Mexico
Mexico City’s Museo de la Ciudad is playing host to a photojournalism exhibition — Expofotoperiodismo — that features nearly 50 photos from 2008. You can see some of the images featured in the show in the above slide show.
All images appear courtesy of the Museum de la Ciudad, and the show runs until April 19th.
Trial by Press Conference
The strangest of press conferences was broadcast live on Al-Iraqiya today. In what looks like a reaction to the terrible incident in Abu Ghraib in which more than 30 people were killed Ministry of Interior spokesman Abdul-Karim Khalaf, paraded two alleged Qaeda members in front of Iraqi journalists. He sat them beside him and […]
Javed Yazamy killed in Kandahar
Javed Yazamy, a freelance camerman and fixer working in Kandahar in southern Afghanistan, was killed yesterday in a drive by shooting. He worked for Canadian news outlets mainly CTV News and went also went by the name of Javed Ahmed and the nickname of JoJo. The Committe to Protect Journalists sent out this statement, […]
Two Iraqi journalists killed in suicide attack west of Baghdad
Iraqi television channel al-Baghdadiya says that two of it’s journalists were amongst the 33 Iraqis killed in a suicide attack today. They were covering reconciliation meeting taking place in Abu Ghraib, west of Baghdad. Al-Iraqiya, the state funded Iraqi television channel says one of its correspondents has been seriously injured in that attack as well. […]
Diplomatic Games in Khartoum
So we’ve already had one round of punch and counter punch with the ICC’s decision to issue an arrest warrant for Omar al-Bashir followed by his (and I’m told it came directly from the president) expulsion of 13 international charities. Now we are into round two. Even as wiser heads counselled against further action, the […]
Ministry of Defence blog rumbling forward
The Ministry of Defence has been rather slow on the uptake in the social media world. Partly because they’ve just been slow – it happens in large bureaucratic organisations and partly because there are a lot of difficulties working out how best to play the communication game when lives are at stake and sensitive issues […]
Tbilisi Awaits ‘Hot Spring’
Georgia’s fractious opposition isn’t united, and probably never will be, but the various parties and factions seem to have come closer to a collective action plan to oust President Mikheil Saakashvili through street protests – in other words, they basically want another Georgian ‘revolution’, starting next month. Their strategies for what happens if Saakashvili goes, however, are […]
Reuters honours conflict photographers
Reuters has announced the winners of its own internal journalism awards for 2008. Notable among the winners were Goran Tomasevic’s image of a US soldier in action against the Taleban in Afghanistan, named as Photograph of the Year. Belgrade-born Tomasevic began working for Reuters during the Bosnian conflict in the 1990s the agency says. Ukrainian […]
Reconstructing bodies and lives
Sometimes stories just bump into you. On the flight to Nigeria my co-trainer colleague Christopher met a medical team of German surgeons and nurses who were also on their way to Kano. Their goal – to offer free operations to as many people as they can manage in a fortnight. The team is drawn from […]
Royal carpet in Sth America?
South Americans don’t quite know what to make of the British royal family. I suspect most are mildly suspicious. Monarchs are bad in the books of most independent Republics. But I think there’s also a soft spot for Queen Liz and her brood. Certainly Princess Diana (“Laydee Dee” in the phonetic) was a big star […]
